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Can cats be vegan?!

[UltraVid id=35 ]hey guys it’s Rihanna today we are talking all about cats as a crazy vegan cat lady I get asked many many times that’s probably the question that arises the most for me through my email on YouTube on Instagram what do you feed your cats as a vegan and I touched on the subject for the first time in a video in my 3 unethical things I do as a vegan so if you haven’t seen that video already go and check it out that was a few months ago and I was kind of still testing the waters and doing my research and a few months on I can now talk to you guys about this more thoroughly and explain what I’m doing this is my breakfast movie sorry so I’m definitely going to get for this video because whatever you say about being a vegan and feeding a cat that you live with there’s always going to be opposing ideas and someone’s always going to say you’re wrong and I know that and that’s why it’s not the most fun video to make but I know it’s going to be helpful for you out there I got an email about this yesterday actually so this is why I’m making it today so I’m going to present the two sides of this argument and really go through each one in detail as quickly as I can now I want this video to be short and then at the end I’m going to explain to you what I’ve decided to do this is by no means a video telling you what you should do you have to do what you want and you have to do what you think is best and most right and most ethical and that’s how I’ve come to my decision on one side of this we have a group of vegans who say you know cats are obligate carnivores they are biologically designed to eat meat and we as vegans should not force our vegan views on our cats and I feel this is is this is strong you know cats do you have the carnivorous door that goes up and down it doesn’t go side to side they are designed near their biology points towards meat they are carnivores and because cats are carnivores they actually need to eat meat they actually need the nutrients from meat in order to be healthy that is why a lot of vegans you have cats do you feed their cats meat still they do still directly buy from the meat dairy and egg industries they are still putting their money into that because they have a pet they have someone in their life who actually needs that from the industry because they’re carnivores because they need the nutrients from the meat in order to be healthy so whilst this group of vegans are most likely not happy that directly funding the meat dairy and egg industries in order to feed their kind of as pets meat they’ve made this compromise because they feel it’s most ethical to give a kind of respect meat on the other side of the argument we have vegans who have on the opposite extreme decided to go with a 100% vegan cat food for their pets now a lot of the time when I see responses to this on social media it is an absolute uproar and it gets really really hairy it is not a fun discussion to be in and I avoid it like the plague the reason that a lot of vegans might choose to feed their cats 100% vegan cat food is that there is the argument that if you have a pet and you are feeding your pets the dead bodies of other animals who didn’t want to die this in itself is a form of speciesism you know you are favoring your cat or whatever pet you have that needs to eat meat over another species who didn’t have the choice in the matter another point to add to this is that if you choose not to feed your cat meat and you opt for a vegan cat food then I think it’s highly likely that when your cat goes and hunts and brings it back instead of bring it bringing it to you as a gift they would actually eat their kills and they would obtain any extra nutrients that they need from that meat that they’ve gone out and hunted themselves that you have taken no part in you have no control over and this really is the circle of life whichever group of vegans you fall into as a cat owner it’s it’s probably likely as well that you are someone who had a cat before you went vegan and so this became a problem for you whichever side of the argument you land on because you went vegan after you have this beautiful animal in your life and then it presented a massive headache because you didn’t know what to do about it and that was definitely the situation I found myself in now the part you’ve all been waiting for what where do I fall in this argument which side of the line am I on what do I feel well I’d say for a while I felt that I was going to continue feeding my cat meat and it got to a point a few months ago when I realized that I wasn’t going to place another order for the 10th at me I just couldn’t bring myself to do it I was not happy that my money was directly funding the meat dairy and egg industries because it was literally the last thing that I was directly buying from those places I thought about all the animals that died to go into the meat that I was feeding to my cats and without doubt the animals that are ground up into pet food would have been abused and would have been treated very badly I didn’t I couldn’t get this out of my mind it kept going through my mind and I thought I just can’t keep buying it so I’ve come to a compromise before this started to become an ethical problem for me I was feeding my cats half hill science plan chicken adult biscuits and half Connie tinned wet cat food and they seemed really happy on that until I started thinking about what I was buying and where it came from and all the rest of it I began doing my research on alternative vegan dry cat foods and I saw so many fantastic things written reviews about a me cats so I thought you know what I’m gonna buy a bag so I did I bought a bag and I started to mix the a me cat biscuits in with the hill science plan when you first start to do this if you decide you want to do this and you want to switch your cats to a vegan dry biscuit you need to start the ratio with 90% of their regular food meat consistency that you’re feeding them already and only start with 10% of the new food and gradually gradually it will become and the ratio of mostly vegan cat food but you have to do it over a period of time you can’t just switch their food immediately because they might not react to it very well and this time also gives you chance to observe how they are to see if their behavior changes to see if they’re looking healthy you know you can see there the health and their coats you can see if they seem happy you can see if there is active outside etc etc I’ve been making this transition for them over the last month and now we’re on about 80% ami cat – vegan kappa skits 20% hill science plan and they are just as happy and energetic as they were before they seemed really really well their coats looked beautiful so I haven’t seen any difference and whatsoever in case you watch a mess in your thinking you are a terrible cat owner what are you doing I will explain the one nutrient that cats absolutely must get now ordinarily this nutrient called taurine could only be obtained in meat sources but now because humans are actually quite clever with some things we have managed to synthetically create this and add it into being cat food so you will see taurine listed in vegan cat foods or I mean you should always check but it should always be in it it’s definitely in the alley cat that I’ve got and this is really important for cats you I ran out of the tinned cats me about a month ago and since then I was looking into alternatives of how I could maybe continue feeding my cats meat occasionally without me directly having to put my money into an industry that I do not agree with and do not want to support in any way I managed to find a compromise to this and I spoke with a local business I also spoke with friends and family who still eat meat and we kind of have a loose agreement where each week I will get some kind of meat whether that be chicken or turkey or something from another source that I haven’t paid for but it’s from a place where it would otherwise have been going in the rubbish bin so this for me is like the best compromise because I still can give my cats meat not every day I won’t be giving them every day and they seem really happy on that but I do still give them me now for me the ethical conundrum was that I didn’t want to be personally funding the industry I didn’t want my money to be going to that place but I understood them it was important for my cats to have some kind of meat even though I do believe it is possible for you to feed your cats 100% vegan cat food because of the added taurine there’s also another group that I haven’t mentioned in this video and that is the group of people who say that vegans shouldn’t even have pets at all but this is definitely a topic for another video because I can talk about that for a long time I really hope you’ve enjoyed it and I hope if you have cats in your life and you’re vegan or you’re considering going vegan that you have found this helpful I know I’m going to get for this video but hey that’s why I’m on YouTube right so if you’ve got anything to say to me whether you agree or disagree then link them below put it in the comments and I will get back to you thanks so much for watching follow me on Instagram around reen check out my blog rihanna doing calm and i’ll see you tomorrow guys love and light i live about 10 minutes from yorkshire countryside like deep in the yorkshire countryside down there and there were lots of fields with a mother sheep and their little lambs and when I was younger I never really thought about why the babies were there and then why they disappeared and obviously now when I see them it just breaks my heart because in a couple more weeks you won’t see the lambs anymore it’s my Lynette Cup and I’ve got the really bright awesome purple color it’s like a really really vibrant purple it’s gorgeous I’m gonna go and see one of my friends who works who has a vintage door that I think I featured in a period vlog before so I thought I’d go and see her for an hour or so it’s been a long time since I’ve seen her and because I’ve been like driving quite a bit today I have got my banana smoothie in my kiln the drugs I’m trying to do you know more of zero waste transitioning and changing how I’m buying things it’s actually going really well it’s pretty interesting do any of you guys live zero-waste or any of you transition